A daily bit of learning, cut-and-pasted from your and my favorite online encyclopedia.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

William Rawls

[Where has this site been? Down in the hole -- lost to the latest season of "The Wire." And now that we're all caught up, a week-long wiki-review of the show's most interesting characters seems in order. So here goes, fictional characters. Let's start with the one with the biggest secret: (WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW.)]William Rawls is a fictional Police officer in the Baltimore Police Department played by John Doman on the HBO drama The Wire. Over the course of the series he has ascended to the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Operations. Only brief glimpses have been seen of his personal life, but it has been strongly implied that he is a closet homosexual.......Nothing has been shown of Rawls's personal life, with one exception: he appeared, out of uniform, in the background in a scene which took place in a gay bar.[2]

....Rawls lack of a sense of humour and distinctive technique for intimidating others is based on real Baltimore CID commander Joe Cooke, although Rawls is far more banal. Simon has also commented that Rawls attitude to the murder rate and his units clearance record is a product of the extreme pressure he is under.[4]